Iris and Ruby — Rosie Thomas

Rich and alive with descriptions of the bustling streets of old Cairo, and the vast, foreboding desert surrounding it - "Iris and Ruby" is a stirring story of mothers, daughters and the distance between three generations of one family. Stiflingly quiet and claustrophobic, Iris Black's Cairo house is suddenly disturbed by the unexpected arrival of her troubled and wilful granddaughter, Ruby. Teenage Ruby has run away from England to seek solace with the grandmother she hasn't seen for many years. An unlikely bond is formed as the two open themselves up to one another. Ruby helps Iris document her deteriorating memories of the glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo of World War Two, a time when she lost her heart to her one true love - the enigmatic Captain Xan Molyneux - and then lost him to the ravages of the war. Iris' early devastation shapes her own heart and that of her daughter and granddaughter in turn - and leads the two women into terrible danger in the Egyptian desert.

Winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year Award (2007) by the Romantic Novelists' Association.